New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1887-02-06
PRISONERS OF POVERTY.
NoMEN WAGE-woRKERS. THEIR IRADES
AND THEIR LIVES
XVI.
TWO HOSPITAL BEDS.
BY HELEN CAMPBELL.

Annlyzer of social conditions has yet made plain
That New-Yorlk mi hit be mOnopolist IN tins re-
spect could well be conceived for the Dutch were
tradcrs by birthright and New-AmsteTdam arose
to this one end. But why the Puritan colony
whose first act before the tree stumIs were
brown in their corn-6elds was the iOlinHms OF u
college, and whose cornerstone rested on pooK-
why these People should have come TO represent
q spirit of bargaining and an aptitude Tor eeeon-
on unmatched by the Reconstructed Dutcini"h
hath 10 man yet told u.s.
Tho sharpest business men OF the presehV "io
rh;eev yankees and if Jew and hard bargain
uro counted synonymes "New-E nglander' mas
,u,ua, claim, TO the place. The birthplace anu
home of all reform, NewEngland is the nome also
of n greed born OF hard conditions ana DEVELOPING
n keenncss unequaed by that OF any otier par
va;ner On earth The Italian the Greek, the iufK
and a certain aesthetic satisfaction in bargaining
and do il methodically, but always plluiesqueN
and with O relish unaffected by defeat. But "loh
the Yankee it is a passionate, absorbing DESIRE
sharpening every line Of the face and felt even in
the turn of the head or shoulders, and In every
line of the eager, restless figure. Success assured
rostcns and modifies these tendencies. Defeat
s.,prayaLes them. One meets many man for
whom il is plain that tho beginning OF life held
unlimited faith that the great city meant q fort
une, the sanguinc conviction passing gradually
Into the interogative form. The fortune Is sun
there Thus far the conviction holds good out
his share in it has become moro and more PROD
lematical. The Tying and elusive shadow stili
holds for him the only real substance, but his
hands have had no power to grasp OF deta1n' ana
the most logged determination gives way at last
IN the sense of hopeless failure For this type may
be the ending as cheap clerk or bookkeeper. with
furtiye attempts al speculation when few dollars
have been saved or a retreat toward that remote
West which has hidden efectually many baied
and defeated lives. There may also come another
ending and the feverish, scheming soul lose MS
hold on tho body, which, has meant to it merely
o means of getting and increasing money.
II is this latter fate that came to man who
would have no place in this record save for the
Fact that his last QuerulOus and still-qucstionns
DAYS were lived side by side with man who had
also sought money, and having found n had chosen
for it certain experimental uses by means OF
which siphon he was presently drained dry. For
him also had been many defeats. hospital
ward held them BOTH and the two beds were side
by side the one representing patience that never
failed, yet something moro than patience For
tho face Of this man bore no token OF defeat. IL
was rather triumph that looked at moments from
tho clear eyes that had also an almost divine pity
~ they turned toward the neiShhor who poured
out his story between paroxysms OF coughing. and
having told 1t once. proceeded to tell IL again. DIS
sole and final satisfaction in life being the armagh
ment of oil living. The visitor who came into the
ward was pinned on the instant, the fiery eyes de-
manding the hearing which was the last gift time
held for him. 1t was o common story often told
this slow, inevitable descent into poverty. Its
force lay In the condensed fury of the speaker.
who looked on the men he had known as sworn
ponspirators against him. and cursed them In their
going out and coming in with relish that nj ar
g,lment could affect. What his neighbor might
have to tell was matter Of the purest indiifer
ence 1t was impossible even to ask his story and
It remained impossible until day when arraisnr
ment was cut short and the disappointed. bitter
soul passed on to such conditions it had made
Tor itself.
sYou've got the best of me. They ell do" he
said IN diving, with last turn of the sombre eyes
toward his neighbor. "You ought to have gone
Grst by a week. and there you are. But this time
guess it's just as well l don't seem TO want to
light any longer and Pm glad Pm done It's your
turn next. Good"
The words had come with gasps between and
long pauses Here they stopped once for all. Good
had found him; the only good for the child OF
earth, who having failed to learn his lesson here
must try longer school with a different system
Of training. The emlty bed was not filed at once.
screen shut it off. There was time 70 hear
II other words than the passionate ratings that had
monopoized all time. The sick man mended q
little and in one Of the days in which speech was
easier gave this record of his forty years.
Its fact believe that the sons Of reformcrs
seldom walk in the same track. My father Was
one of the old Abolitionists and honest one,
ready to give money when he could and any kind
of work when he couldn't. 1t was a great cause.
cried the negroes down South and went
without sugar year so. and learned to knit so
that could knit some stockings for the small
slaves my own size. But by the time Was eight
years old it was plain enough TO that there
were other kinds Of slavery quite as bad and that
my own mother heavy bonds any OF
them She was o farmers wife and from years
end to years end she toiled and worked. She
never had a cent OF her own, for the butter money
was consecratcd to the and she gave IL
gladly Ny father had no particular intention
to be unl<nd. He was simply like good two
thirds OF the farmers l have known-much more
careful Of his animals than of his wife.
was Sc much cooking and cleaning and butter-mak-
Ing force, and childbearing incident demand
ing little notice rs possible. 1t is because Of
that theory that | am five inches shorter than any
Of our tribe. My mother was tall. slender wo-
man, with sprnsy step and eyes as clear a
brook. 1 them sometimes as / lie here at
night.
i"l said to myself when was ten that I'd have
things easier for her before she died. said IL
straight ahead while / working my way up
In the village store for would not farm, and
when she died | said it DO her in the last hour
ever heard her voice What / couldn't do for
you. mother. III do for all women as long as
the earth
ii was eighteen then, and whichever way
turned some woman was having a hard time and
some brute was making Il for her. Knew it was
partly their FAULT for not teaching their boys
how TO be unsclfsh and decent, but custom and
tradition. tho law and the prophets were all against
them. ! watched ID all as could, but / was
deer in trying to get ahead and did. Somehow.